Spridget based early Westfield Sevens

[Mike Wood]

Hi

 

New forum member here. I am rebuilding a 948cc Austin Healey Sprite MkII at the moment and becoming interested in A Series engined Westfields from Austin Healey Sprite or MG Midget (‘Spridget’) donors including the early Seven as well as the Eleven.

 

Are there any pre-litigation Sevens out there still with Spridget engines, gearboxes, rear axles, front uprights, steering rack and wheels? I have an old Stuart Taylor Motorsport Locost rolling chassis that I am tempted to pop in an Austin Healey Sprite engine and box which makes me think of early Westfield Sevens (as well as Lotus Seven Series II America with its 948cc Sprite engine and gearbox only, no AH rear axle, uprights, rack or wheels).

 

I note that in the well known in these circles Robinshaw and Bouchley book - ‘Westfield the Story’ (2000) published by R B Publications - lists only 132 Sevens made between 1983-1986 including A Series engine cars based on Spridgets but also Ford Crossflow and Coventry Climax engined, so I am not expecting many Spridget based cars left. I was recently lucky to pick up a new copy of this book from Paul Robinshaw - I guess WSCC knows of this supply of this out of print volume?

 

Are there any rebuild threads on here about rebuilding Sevens that have Spridget running gear? I have seen such threads for Eleven new builds.

 

Thanks

Mike

Edited January 8, 2022 by Mike Wood

[DIY-Si]

Whilst I'm of no help to you at all, other than building a new XI, I hope you have luck in finding what you're  after. It'll be quite an interesting find!

[Mike Wood]

Si

 

Thanks for the reply.

 

Found this thread, funnily enough was looking at the same unbuilt project when it was eBay at the time, have kicked myself since for not buying it and also wondered what happened to it. So good it got built and so well.

 

 

and the subsequent forum ad in 2020 for its sale: 

 

 

Cheers

Mike

Edited January 9, 2022 by Mike Wood

[Dave Eastwood (Gadgetman) - Club Chairman]

Welcome, and good luck with the search. They’re a rare beast, that’s for sure. My impression was, that even on the cars with the Spridget and Triumph based suspensions, quite a few were build with Crossflows, rather than BL derived engines.